Delivering the Package

Posted on Tue Mar 28, 2017 @ 3:12pm by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan

1,918 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Rumours
Location: Deck 1116
Timeline: MD06 0300

::ON::

Zandra slipped into the crowd on the Promenade, pulling up her hood, the fall of black hair obscuring her face She pulled out her communicator again and keyed into the small security camera she had set up in the storage locker where she had sent Ahjess. She watched the Ferengi deliver the crate, collect his latinum, and leave. Shutting down the connection, she keyed up Hex.

“It’s done. Meet me at Qu’its.” Short and simple, she hung up and headed for the dingy bar. She slid into the booth and ordered a Risan brandy. She had to take the edge off of her blue balls somehow as she waited for Hex.

The Trill arrived twenty minutes later, its meat suit dressed in the usual black leather jacket. Hex slid into the seat opposite. "Juheni."

“Hex.” Zandra smiled, looking the beautiful Trill over again.

"You have something for me?"

Zandra pulled a napkin out of the dispenser and pulled out a pen. Old school. She wrote down some numbers and slid it across to Hex. “Storage locker down in the lower levels,” she said, “and combination to the locker. Your boy is sleeping soundly inside a transport crate. Oxygen processor generator has a month capacity, though the narcotic will probably wear off in twenty-four to thirty-six hours, depending on his body chemistry. So you can keep him on ice for a while, though there’s no waste processing in there, so it might get rank.”

Hex nodded and typed the information into a padd. "The drugs working out okay? Need the dosage tweaked, or are you not ready to be on top all the time?"

“Playing it by ear,” Aleczandra said. “Just enough dosage to stay in the background and make...suggestions. I can have her take more if I need it. Until I have more solid employment, disappearing would just start up a manhunt, so I’ll play nice schoolgirl for a while. It has its perks.” She grinned.

The padd next to Hex pinged. The Trill glanced at it. "Now where we're off to, try not to attract attention. You're wearing something a little fresh to blend in easily."

Zandra nodded. “Sure,” she said, pulling the hood up again. “I know how to lie low.” She checked that the blades in the wrist sheaths could be drawn easily, an instinctive habit.

"Then follow me." Hex departed Qu’it’s and got into a turbolift, where she lit a new cigar. "Deck 1116, coolant storage." The turbo lift dropped like a stone, but with the internal inertial dampeners they didn't feel it.

They came out into a dark and dingy part of the station, lit only by guide lights since the station was in its night cycle. They followed the trail of lights into a maintenance bay, where a wide assortment of people were milling around a sunken pit that was supposed to be used to filter coolant after use. Money was changing hands all around as in the sunken pit a hairless, scarred up Klingon was eyeing a lithe-looking Gorn.

Hex put her hand on Aleczandra's arm. "Ibalin is over there. If anyone here is going to recognise you it's her. So don't get too close.”

Aleczandra nodded. She eyed the fighters in the pit with interest, sizing each one up before following Hex, making sure to steer clear of Ibalin. “She’s not going to help her reputation with daddy if she hangs out here,” she commented. “She’s been attracting a lot of bodies lately.” She laughed girlishly.

"We all have our vices." Hex breathed out a puff of blue violet smoke. "This way." They weaved through the crowd. "Over there." Hex pointed with her cigar hand. "That’s Gev. These shows are his baby, and he has plenty of thumbs in other pies too. But we're not going to go straight to him." The man she pointed at was a wrinkled Yridian in a flashy suit. Then her hand moved to another, hovering by the edge of the pit and talking to the scarred Klingon. This man was Human, with a small frame and hair slicked back. "Tyler Short is practically a Ferengi, and has ties to the Orions, but we try not to mention it. The Syndicate isn't popular here. But if you want some dude to do something sketchy, but not violent, he's desperate enough to do it."

“Syndicate,” Aleczandra said. “My old employers.” She studied Tyler Short. “Good to know. So this is the station underbelly.” She studied the crowd and then caught a familiar scent. Her head swiveled to catch Tianys Dalav’ni, the Rowa’ni owner of The Lotus Lounge, apparently doing some business at a corner table. After the alien had agreed to aid her little escapade, Zandra had guessed she was more than just a simple lounge proprietor. Much like Ibalin, it seemed.

“Should get that pair in the pit,” Zandra said with a chuckle, looking between the tall Bokai and the more curvaceous Rowa’ni.

"Many would like that," Hex allowed. "But I doubt it will happen, and I doubt it would turn out the way you want. Anyone who steps into that pit has to be willing to die."

“Been there, done that, not looking to try it again now that I have a new body,” Aleczandra said, following Hex through the crowd. “Heard they had a little catfight. That might have been something to see,” she said with a chuckle.

Hex shrugged. "Not my thing." She pushed her way through and worked them round the back of the crowd. "This is who we're going to see. Kemmick is Gevran's right hand man. If there's work for you here, he'll be the one who has it." She pointed out the man in question. At first glance he was Human, just shy of six feet, with an fairly average build, and short shaven dark hair.

“Right,” Aleczandra said, eying the man. “He the one going to get you in the new meat sack?” she asked. Juheni couldn’t claim to understand Hex’s motivations. Naqiis was a standard symbiont, with little desire for outright control. What had happened to Hex to make the slug the way it was?

"I'll take care of that myself. But he's helping me maintain privacy. Why do you ask?"

Aleczandra shook her head. “Guess I can’t wrap my head around why you would want to be in control,” she said. “Or why you need to switch. This body is lovely,” she noted, looking Hex over. “Don’t get me wrong. Ahjess is hot as hell, too. But it’s not like you’re damaged or anything and need a new host.”

"This one's getting a little worn. Plus with the new sheriff in town, it's time to get a new face. " Hex moved closer to their target. "Why share, when you can take?"

“Fair point,” Aleczandra said with a grin.

Kemmick noticed them and looked up to Hex. "What's this, Hex? Why've you brought the sheriff's brat down here?"

Aleczandra glowered at the man. She’d tried to conceal her identity, dying her hair black, keeping the hoodie up, but she supposed it was inevitable.

“Because I wanted to come,” the teen snapped back. “I do what I want.”

Hex looked at Juheni with concern, and withdrew a slim hypo from her leather jacket. "Who's on top? Juheni or the brat?"

Aleczandra glared. “It’s Juheni,” she said. “You know how it is. There’s just some bleed over.”

"Then stop bleeding." Hex held out the hypospray. "This is not the time."

Kemmick looked from one to the other of the two women. "So she's like you?" he asked Hex. "Got a symbiont."

Hex laughed. "Yes, she has a symbiont. And she's nothing like me. I'm in charge of this body. Hers isn't. The previous hosts can take over. Mine can't. The host I have brought here is a Blooded Man. Or was, a couple of bodies and several decades ago. He did me a favour, so I'm paying in introductions."

"Heh." Kemmick looked Aleczandra up and down, "But instead of a believable Blooded Man, you've got Miss Teen Psychopath to pimp."

Aleczandra glared back at Kemmick. “Miss Teen Psychopath can go just about anywhere needed on this station,” she pointed out. “And is very good at her job. Seen the news lately?” she asked. “A bit of a to-do on the Promenade involving a dead Ferengi?”

Kemmick raised an eyebrow. "So that was you, and not that human slut?" The expression on Kemmick's face clearly showed the wheels turning in his head. "Not exactly subtle."

“Subtle enough to get attention and keep people wondering,” Aleczandra said. “It sent a message, and everyone is looking at those idiots in the Dilithium Chamber,” she pointed out. “The Chief of Security isn’t going to let his own daughter be accused. She’s a good girl and was asleep in her bed at the time. That’s what he thinks, anyway.”

"She has a point, Kem. So, Interested?" Hex asked.

The Human-looking man did not look interested. "There's a lot of risk here. I'm not sure we need that sort of scrutiny."

Aleczandra shrugged. “No worries. You know how to contact me. You know I am available. And I will work cheaper than your usual resources,” she pointed out. “Start me small, if you need to.”

"Thats a good idea." Kemmick glanced over at the Yridian, Gev. He pulled a small padd out of his pocket and showed Juheni the artist's impression of the woman who had seduced Nazl. "We want her. Alive to start with. Think you can find her?"

Aleczandra studied the picture. “Shouldn’t be too hard,” she mused. “I recognize her, though I don’t know her. Know some people she was with, though. That will make it easier to find her.”

"Good. Forty-eight hours, or sooner. We can discuss fees when you've got the goods. Or at least a lead."

“Gotcha.” Aleczandra took the picture, studied it again, and then folded it carefully and slipped it into the pocket of her jeans. “Got a way to contact you when it’s done?”

"Tell Ibalin," Kemmick said.

Hex coughed and gave a small shake of the head.

"No? Q'uit then. Once I know you better you can put me on speed dial, but for now..."

“Understood,” Aleczandra said, folding the picture carefully and tucking it into her bra. “I know the Klingon.” She glanced at Hex and nodded. “Ibalin knows my...better half a bit too well,” she admitted. “Not sure she can be trusted to mind her own damn business. I’d appreciate it if my...alternative activities be kept separate from the girl’s.”

Kemmick snorted. "No shit? It's in everyone's best interest if you can keep those things separate. Don't want the brat running to daddy, do we?"

“Not at all,” Aleczandra grinned. “One of the benefits of the drug is that it messes with the memory when you’re not in control, so she doesn’t know much.” She didn’t mention the annoying influence of the others.

"Well, let’s keep it that way, shall we?" Kemmick turned back to the fights. "Don't let me keep you."

Aleczandra just nodded and pulled her hood up further. She studied the picture once more. “Time to get to work,” she murmured.

::OFF::

Aleczandra Ryan/Juheni Naqiis
Civilian/Fixer

Hex
"Pharmacist"

Kemmick
Fight organiser

 

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